By Chris
December 13, 2019 • 2 min read
Tokyo - December 9-13, 2019
Brandon and I visited the Cat Cafe Mocha Lounge in Shibuya during our brief interlude in Tokyo again. We had never been to any cat cafe before, and we heard the ones in Japan are very nice. This one was gorgeous in decor, had many comfy places to indeed "lounge", and even had massage chairs.
The pricing scheme is rather expensive but interesting in that they charge 200 yen (about $2 USD) per ten minutes, but the maximum charge is 2400 yen (around $22 USD) so after two hours, you can stay as long as you want with the same fee. We ended up lounging for around 90 minutes, but if I were to go again I would totally bring a good book and maximize the value. The massage chair time and unlimited drinks were also included in the price. Also, they have an extensive selection of manga to read.
The cats were extremely fluffy and clean. The friendliest ones had bright blue eyes and white/grey coloring, which I suspect were ragdoll cats. Ragdoll cats are supposed to be bred for their extreme social tendencies as opposed to most cats. Sure enough, the ones that looked like ragdoll cats were the only ones whose tail seemed to wag and to actually enjoy our petting. We intend to get a ragdoll cat (or two) when we return to Austin.
The most exciting part was actually right at the beginning. We had purchased some "treats" to give the cats and the lady brought us plastic aprons and moist-looking cat treats. All the cats immediately rushed over to the central cat tree and stared excitedly at us. There was so much fluff! We tried to distribute the treats evenly but some cats were rather insistent so we had to creatively avoid some. They were so cute! Kawaii!!!
We wish all cafes were this comfortable. So many couches and soft cushions everywhere. When we're in big cities we always try to scope out a comfy cafe, and this would be an ideal setup just regarding the furniture. Time with the cats was also fun, but the price was a bit steep if you are just staying an hour or two. To really get your money's worth, a half-day of cats, coffee, massage chair, and reading manga would be ideal. We overall really enjoyed this experience and I'm really excited to get a ragdoll cat upon our return.
You can check out Cafe Mocha's website here.
January 25th to February 20th After our brief stay in Singapore, we more or less spent the next month (from January 25th to February 20th) on various Thai islands. It was a blast and a really unique experience. Looking back on it I'm probably struck the most by how different the experience was on each of the islands. We also had some interesting experiences getting to and from the different…